We import 40% of what we eat. If supplies were to be suddenly cut off, we’d run out of fresh imported food in just two days. So how does it all get to our supermarket shelves – at the precise moment it’s ready to eat? In a 60 minutes documentary Jimmy Doherty discovering how the food industry overcomes the enormous challenges of processing, packaging, transporting, storing, and distributing – how our food gets from the world’s fields to our plates.
On his journey he’s going to find out how technology, science, and a vast army of people all over the world make a hugely complex operation go like clockwork to ensure an uninterrupted supply. What he witnesses will fill his journey with surprises and confound assumptions. As a farmer, his approach to producing food emphasises “ local is best”. But the realities of how food travels around the world will force him to re-think some of his own beliefs. His travel plans include Egypt, Costa Rica, Kenya, and the Netherlands.
For the filming in a Dutch greenhouse a cherry picker (telescopic boom lift) is needed.